Marilyn Lewis has drawn our attention to the following publication, which will be of interest to all readers of Cambridge Platonist texts:

” ‘Origenian Platonisme’ in Interregnum Cambridge: Three Academic Texts by George Rust, 1656 and 1658″, edited by Marilyn A. Lewis, Davide A. Secci, and Christian Hengstermann, with assistance from John H. Lewis, and Benjamin Williams, History of Universities, vol. XXX / 1-2, pp. 43-124, published 3 August 2017.

Abstract: “Building on Professor Sarah Hutton’s designation of the years 1658-1662 as an ‘Origenist moment in English theology’, this article adds substantial detail to our knowledge of what Marilyn Lewis describes as an ‘Origenian Platonist’ moment. The article presents English translations of three Latin academic texts, written by George Rust in 1656 and 1658 while he was a fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge. The first text, Messias in S. Scriptura promissus olim venit should be assigned to Rust’s fulfilment in 1656 of the requirement to dispute in the Divinity Schools in the University of Cambridge in order to qualify for the degree of Bachelor of Divinity. The second and third texts were presented at the annual University of Cambridge Commencement Day in 1658, when Rust incepted BD. His Act verses, Resurrectionem e mortuis Scriptura docet nec refragatur Ratio and Anima separata non dormit appeared on a souvenir broadsheet for the day, and the final text, Resurrectionem è Mortuis S. Scriptura tradit, nec refragatur Ratio was the discourse which Rust defended in the disputation. Not only are these two 1658 texts important additions to the writings constituting the ‘Origenian Platonist moment’, but a reconstruction of the Commencement on 5 and 6 July will show that they formed part of what was perhaps the most public exposition and celebration of Origenian Platonist doctrines in Interregnum Cambridge.”

Link: History of Universities, XXX (2017), on OUP website

Professor Sarah Hutton has recently discovered a Conway letter not included in the Conway Letters edited by herself and M.H. Nicolson. It is National Library of Ireland MS, from Lord Conway to his wife, written from Dublin and dated 24 August 1678–the year before her death. It tells her that he has arranged for imprisoned Quakers to be released and for the charges against others to be dropped. It also tells the story of a “bad” Quaker who cheated someone of his inheritance. And other things.

Further information on this interdisciplinary conference can be found on https://www.dal.ca/faculty/arts/classics/wisdom-belongs-to-god.html.

ISNS members are invited to submit abstracts: http://www.isns.us/.

The programme for the annual conference of the British Society for the History of Philosophy, to take place at the University of Sheffield on 6-8 April 2017, is now available on the conference website: http://bshp2017.weebly.com. It will include a workshop on the Cambridge Platonists with papers by David, Sarah Hutton, Douglas Hedley and Christian Hengstermann.

At the opening of a new centre for the research on Platonism headed by Dr Douglas Hedley (Cambridge),  Professor Michael Allen (California) will give a talk entitled “Transfiguration and the Platonic Fire Within” at the Divinity Faculty of Cambridge University on 1st December 2016 (5 pm, Runcie Room). The centre is intended to provide an international hub for researchers working on Platonism old and new with regular Werner Beierwaltes lectures focusing on key aspects of ancient, medieval, early modern and contemporary Platonic philosophy.

A major AHRC research grant secured!

The Cambridge Platonists at the origins of Enlightenment: texts, debates, and reception (1650-1730)

The research team of Douglas Hedley, Sarah Hutton and David Leech, with Technical Adviser Mike Hawkins, will employ two full-time research assistants. The grant will cover funding for extensive editorial work with both texts and manuscripts.

The project, worth £833,472 and shared between the Universities of Cambridge and Bristol, will start on 1 September 2016 and run for three years.

2015 marks the 500th anniversary of the completion of the stonework of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. To celebrate this anniversary, the Chapel has organised a series of special sermons. Douglas Hedley will give a sermon on Benjamin Whichcote on 10th May.

The following papers will be offered on Cambridge Platonism at the 13th Annual Conference of the ISNS in Buenos Aeres, Argentina, June 15-19th 2015:

Thursday, June 18 

Cambridge Platonism and the Enigma of Early Modern Neoplatonism (Platonismo de Cambridge y el enigma del neoplatonismo en la temprana Modernidad) I

Douglas Hedley and Natalia Strok

Silvia Manzo, Universidad Nacional de La Plata / IDHICS-CONICET

“Henry More and Francis Bacon on matter’s activity and antitypia”

Rodolfo E. Fazio, UBA

“Newton and the neo-Platonic offensive against Cartesianism”

Fernando Bahr, UNL-CONICET

“Bayle and Le Clerc: the traces of Cambridge Platonism in early Eighteenth Century French Philosophy”

Cambridge Platonism and the Enigma of Early Modern Neoplatonism (Platonismo de Cambridge y el enigma del neoplatonismo en la temprana Modernidad) II

Douglas Hedley and Natalia Strok

Douglas Hedley, Cambridge University

“Whence Cambridge Platonism? Reflections on Cudworth’s 1647 House of Commons Sermon”

Natalia Strok, UBA-UNLP-CONICET

“Plutarch’s Strong Presence in Cudworth’s The True Intellectual System of the Universe”

For the full programme (to be advertised shortly), click here

This project, based at Humboldt University of Berlin, aims to chart the transformations of sympathy in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English literature and culture, starting with its matrix patterns as formulated in classical antiquity. The project set out with a strong emphasis on Neoplatonism, addressing its various rephrasings and in particular its Early Modern interactions (including the Cambridge Platonists) with other philosophies and mentalities such as Epicureanism and Naturalism.  the interrelations between the competing world-views of Neoplatonism and Stoicism and their mutual modifications. In this process, sympathy emerges as a key concept. See attachment for further informations. SympathySFB-Logo

Henry More (1614-1687)
A Conference to Mark the Fourth Centenary of his Birth.
THE WARBURG INSTITUTE
5 DECEMBER 2014
Supported by the British Society for the History of Philosophy
Organisers Sarah Hutton and Guido Giglioni

Henry More was one of the most important thinkers in seventeenth-century British philosophy. Although he has never achieved the status of proper philosopher enjoyed by his contemporaries Hobbes and Locke, More’s work deserves to be recognized as a significant contribution to early modern philosophy. He was a figure who relentlessly engaged with the most pressing issues of his time. He intervened in the debate about the new science of nature and medicine, contributed in an original way to the recovery of Platonism and various elements of the classical tradition, left a lasting impact on the literary scene, and played a role in the contemporary religious controversies.
This conference will mark More’s centenary with reappraisal of his legacy.

Programme:
Jasper Reid: ‘More’s Place in Seventeenth-Century Thought’
Guido Giglioni: ‘Henry More’s Psychozoia and the Epic of Emanation’
Douglas Hedley: ‘Henry More and Nathaniel Ingelo: The Platonic Imagination in Cambridge?’
Cecilia Muratori, ‘Henry More on Animals’
Sarah Hutton: ‘Henry More and Renaissance Philosophy: More’s Response to Girolamo Cardano in his Of the Immortality of the Soul’
David Leech: ‘Henry More on the “Boniform Faculty”’
Alan Gabbey: ‘Philosophia Spinozana Destructa: Henry More (1671-1679)’

For booking information, visit
http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/events/colloquia-2014-15/henry-more/

The 12th Annual Conference of the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies. Hosted and sponsored by the Philosophy Centre of the University of Lisbon, to be held at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Lisbon (Portugal) on June 16-21, 2014. This year includes a panel on ‘Cambridge Platonists’ (Douglas Hedley). For list of panels, follow this link.

A conference on the contents and the role of the Platonic commentary tradition in the Renaissance.

Date: Weds 11^th June 2014

Place: Birkbeck University of London

Organized by Stephen Clucas and John Sellars

Speakers: Michael Allen, Anna Corrias, Dilwyn Knox, Jacomien Prins, Valery Rees.

For more information see http://renaissance-philosophy.blogspot.co.uk/

The event is free and open to all.
To book a place please email either s.clucas@bbk.ac.uk or john.sellars@bbk.ac.uk

Sarah Hutton will speak on ‘Henry More and the Cartesian context of Newton’s Early Cambridge Years’ at the conference ‘A great variety of admirable discoverys’: Newton’s Principia in the Age of Enlightenment’ at the Royal Society, London, 11–13 December 2013.

For details visit http://royalsociety.org/events/2013/newtons-principia/